Hyderabad: Gambia became the first country to lose a T20 international match after the team's flight got delayed because of a documentation issue and couldn't compete in the 2026 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Africa Regional Final Qualifier B clash against Rwanda at the Gymkhana Club Ground in Nairobi on Saturday, October 19, 2024.
Kenya are hosting the 2026 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Africa Regional Final Qualifier B matches. Apart from the hosts, the group also includes Rwanda, The Gambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and the Seychelles.
The tournament opener was scheduled between the Gambia and Rwanda teams. All the Group B captains were present at the venue for the official photoshoot a day ahead of the match. However, it emerged soon after the scheduled match start time that The Gambia had forfeited the match.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) and official organisers haven't officially revealed the reason behind the walkover. But the journalist Adam Theo took to his X handle and confirmed that “most of the team didn’t make it to the venue in time due to documentation issues”.
It is not very clear what these documentation issues are, or how they prevented the Gambians from arriving at the venue. According to the ICC rules, The Gambia could have started with fewer than 11 cricketers, waiting for the rest of the team to arrive and join them. They could even have played the entire match without 11 players, but they decided to forfeit the match.
Law 1.1 which resonated with the issue states that "By agreement, a match may be played between sides of fewer than, or more than, eleven players, but not more than eleven players may field at any time. If, during the match and for whatever reason, a side is reduced to fewer than the original number of nominated players, the match shall continue as long as it is possible to do so under the Laws or any agreements made before the toss".
Two teams from each group will advance to the next round, where they will join Namibia and Uganda. Tanzania and Malawi have already qualified from Group A. Group C consists of Botswana, Eswatini, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and Saint Helena.
